Noam Chomsky: Manufacturing Consent (video)

[hazelnut]

Hulu - Manufacturing Consent - Watch the full feature film now.

This is a video (2.5 hours) about professor Noam Chomsky's view of how information is shaped in a Democracy. How does the NY Times decide what is fit to print and what we should read? Who decides what we know about global warming? Who decides if Congress should fund GMOs?
How is public opinion shaped?

These are critical issues for engineering social change and for anyone who seeks to inform the public about environmental issues.

Noam Chomsky is a linguist/anthropologist who has been around a while.

[midwesternerr]

I think public policy and publicity are issues that can't be studied too closely. It's hard to imagine any positive outcome without significant advancements in the size and sophistication of advocacy for wildlife.

[Equilibrium]

I'm going to watch this. Thanks for adding a link.

[Staff]

These are critical issues for engineering social change and for anyone who seeks to inform the public about environmental issues.

Nice addition hazelnut.

[hazelnut]

I was encouraged by finding that there is a place for dissent and activism. If everyone agrees with everybody else, no one learns anything!

[Equilibrium]

hazelnut> I did like watching it. Made me think!!! I have to question whether that was dissent or... some sort of an indoctrination into the UN theosophy? I don't know. I watched it yesterday...replayed quite a few parts to make sure I was hearing him right. The only paper that tells the truth is the Financial Times??? When reading the FT you have to be on the look out for the leaks just like with any other publication... Dec 7, 1975 anyone??? We should all be reading from many sources trying to avoid manufactured realities so we can form our own opinions. He has a handle on the double standards, suppression of fact, filtering, and underlying coercion employed to shape and control opinions but... aren't most of us already aware the structure of American media is to eliminate critical discusssion as in the creation of historical facts to promote their agenda> So... we ignore certain types of atrocities because most of what we believe is conditioned and we're all deluded and manipulated by the system (except him) while the interests of power are served as we internalize the values and label ourselves "free thinkers" in this war for men's minds he's laid out. Okie dokie... I'll buy his analysis that the media dulls people's brains, diverts our attention, and get us away from things that matter but I'm also going to buy his analysis of vilification in that the person who throws the mud always wins... and Chomsky's throwing around a lot of mud and gathering groupies playing the blame game well while selling one book after the next and raking in honorariums left and right but... his solution to all our problems is that we ordinary people accept that the biggest terrorists come out of Washington then develop an independent mind to stop the isolation and then as "free thinkers" we should all roll over and let the UN run the world??? Catch him repeating that dissenting voices are destructive and the less we know the better... and beware the New York Times beause it's a lap dog to the Emporer who has no clothes. I'm reading there's no way to stop the marginalization and control of the public because the elitists run our Country and they're not going to let it get out of control and the elitists know necessary illusion works. He quoted Reinhold Niebuhr, "rationality belongs to the cool observer but because of the stupidity of the average man he follows not reason but faith and this naive faith requires necessary illusion". Okiedoike again... taken out of context but it did support his propaganda model because history must be shaped in an appropriate way according to him. I agree with him when he states people have the capacity to see through the deceipt in which they're ensnared with his stated point being we have to work and don't have the time or the inclination to sort out fact from fiction even if what was available to us wasn't filtered.... problemo... I'm not a proponent of a world government to sort things out for me to avoid challenging the legitimacy of authority as he evidently is but... then I'm sitting here with a kid whose passport came with a chip in it and when our passports need to be renewed... they'll have chips in them too, The U.S. Electronic Passport Frequently Asked Questions. I'd be interested in amelanchier's comments on this guy since I do think this all boils down to a fundamental control of natural resources... and we Americans have lots of precious natural resources and I'm not about ready to embrace the control of them being turned over to a new world order... in the name of conservation no matter how convincing his moral arguments were.

[hazelnut]

I didn't get out of this that we should turn over any of US soverenty to the UN--he is simply talking about the way information works -- it gets selected and the people who do the selecting tend of have more power than those who dont. And those who tacitly agree to the selection tend to follow without question. We assume if we read the NY Times every day we have read all the news that's fit to print --- except that that was selected out.

N.C. is a linguist and he is talking about the way language works in our culture.

[TheLorax]

I believe he is a proponent of a New World Order. Have you read the book The Conspirator’s Hierarchy?

[CincyGarden]

This is a great movie.

In college, the film club screened it. I covered as a member of the student media. It got a late start, and the movie reached 2:05 in time, and they came it to shut down the hall. Folks (myself included, journalistic integrity be damned) begged to be able to watch the rest. Security and film club conferred outside the room.

A film club rep actually came into the room, grabbed the tape and ran off. Pande[f'in]monium ensued.

Not sure what this adds to the discussion, but for what it's worth.

[hazelnut]

CincyGarden: I think it is an example of dissent, activism, and learning. Chomsky would have approved Im sure! If there is no passion for new concepts and ideas, what is there that's left that's worth while? There is only the status quo.